


still fighting for peace (along the way we’ll learn a thing or two)

by OsleyaKomWonkru



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Flashbacks, From the Time Jump between Seasons 2 and 3, Missing Scene, Past Lincoln/Luna, Post-Coital, Present Octavia/Lincoln, Storytelling, What is Home, What is Peace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:48:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25808371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OsleyaKomWonkru/pseuds/OsleyaKomWonkru
Summary: Lincoln tells Octavia the story of how he met Luna, and why he left, and how that brought him to her.“Are you - her?”“Who is the her you seek?”“The Natblida who fled from her conclave. Who refused to fight for the position of Heda.”“Why is such blood important to you? Is it not enough that we all disavow violence? Do you need confirmation that even someone raised with violence in their blood can renounce it before you can?”“No. That’s not what I meant. I admire such strength, that’s all. The strength to resist that which your blood is telling you, the strength to resist that which society tries to make you. The strength to choose one’s own destiny.”The woman stepped closer, her eyes traveling up and down Lincoln’s body as she did. “You consider that strength?”“I do.”“Well then, welcome to Floukru, Lincoln. I’m Luna.”
Relationships: Lincoln/Luna (The 100), Octavia Blake/Lincoln
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: The t100 Writers for BLM Initiative





	still fighting for peace (along the way we’ll learn a thing or two)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a promptfill for the [The 100 Writers for BLM Initiative](https://t100fic-for-blm.tumblr.com/about), where @id-do-it-for-free-babe on Tumblr requested a story that had Lincoln telling Octavia about his past with Luna, including the dropped canon thread of Luna being Lincoln's ex-fiance. I hope you like it!
> 
> If anyone has another prompt for me to write, feel free to follow the instructions in the link above to submit one! I write for Linctavia, Niytavia or any Octavia-centric genfic, so if there's a story you've been wanting me to write - now's your chance to request it!
> 
> Trigedasleng is translated inline.

Octavia burrowed her face into Lincoln’s neck, kissing off the sweat that had gathered there during their lovemaking, not wanting to open her eyes. If she did that, she’d be reminded of where they were, which was not the open forests or rocky caves that she’d grown to call home, but rather the stark metal Ark walls of Camp Jaha - _no, Arkadia,_ she corrected herself, it was _Arkadia_ now, even worse - that they were trapped in.

Lincoln sensed her conflict about their surroundings, not pulling her away, one hand stroking the back of her head, fingers taking note of the braids he’d have to redo in the morning, the other resting on her bare hip, holding her close at his side as her thigh slid back over his to draw more comfort from his presence.

“This won’t be forever.” He murmured. “Lexa will realize that it’s to her advantage to have open trade with Arkadia. She’ll lift the kill order and we’ll be able to move around more freely.”

“Then we can go to Luna.” Octavia whispered into his skin. “Get out of this metal box.”

“I know this place holds bad memories for you, but if your goal is to get out of a metal box, going to Luna’s isn’t what you want.”

Octavia pulled back from Lincoln’s neck and rested her head on his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Luna’s in hiding. She and her clan live where the others dare not go.”

“To the sea and then across it. That’s what you said.”

“Yeah.”

“But that’s not to the ground? Luna lives on a boat or something?”

“Not a boat, but a metal structure in the sea. Trust me, you’d feel just as trapped there as you do here. And there you wouldn’t have the option to slip out to sleep some nights in the woods like you do now.”

“Is that why you left?”

“No. I left for reasons that were far more complicated than that.”

“Like what?”

“We had different views about the world, and that’s what tore us apart.”

“You used to be lovers.” Octavia said slowly. A statement, not a question.

“Yes.”

“But you were still ready to go back to her a few months ago.”

“I wasn’t going to go back to her like that. Just a place to lay low until Trikru lost interest in me. If you had come with me, Luna would have welcomed you, it wouldn’t have been a problem.”

“But you were… torn apart. Why?”

“Is that a conversation you want to have right now? Like this?”

Octavia kissed Lincoln’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter who you were with in the past. We’re here now. Together. But she was important to you, I can feel it. And I don’t want to miss an important part of your story.”

“All right.” Lincoln took a long breath and tried to decide where this story started.

* * *

_Not long after he’d gained his majority, Lincoln had been out on a Trikru patrol. There had been reports from some outlying villages that both Azgeda and Sangedakru were making incursions into their territory. Some hunters had found Azgeda arrows in their hunting grounds, and there were indications of illegal salvage operations, even though Lexa’s rules were clear: Trade not theft was the way the clans needed to operate within the Coalition._

_So Lincoln’s patrol was tasked with finding these thieves, subduing them, and bringing them to Polis to face the Commander’s justice for undermining the Coalition. But when three days in they came across a band of Sangedakru thieves, his people didn’t hesitate to shoot them all down, arrows flying without any warning at all._

_“What are you doing?” Lincoln hissed at Quincy, the captain of the team. “You know Indra said we needed to apprehend them to take to the Commander.”_

_“They were stealing from us.” Quincy said, as the others got in formation behind him, making it clear that Lincoln was alone in his objections. “Lexa’s forgotten her roots. She’s forgotten that it is always us who get the brunt of Ageda’s wrath and Sangedakru’s treachery. She should know better. We can’t rely on her to do what’s best for us.”_

_“And now you’re adding to tensions with Sangedakru. You think this will help?”_

_“This makes it even. If Sangedakru has any honour, they’ll accept this as justice done and that’ll be the end of it. Now, can we continue hunting for other lawbreakers or do we have to run that by you too?”_

_“This is wrong.”_

_“Then run to Lexa yourself. Get off my patrol. Now.”_

_Lincoln knew that tone, and he’d heard it spoken to many around him growing up. He could have challenged Quincy, but that wouldn’t have done anything to serve justice. So without a word he turned and walked away._

_Returning to TonDC wasn’t an option. While Indra was loyal to the Commander, she was just as quick to fight as Quincy was, and Lincoln couldn’t trust that she would back him up. He could go to Lexa, as Quincy had said, but that would likely continue the cycle of vengeance as Sangedakru and probably soon enough Azgeda would step up to take their piece of Trikru._

_Lincoln was tired of it. He wanted peace._

_He’d heard of a clan far across the water, a clan led by a renegade natblida who had refused to participate in the conclave almost a decade earlier. She forbade all types of violence in her territory._

_That sounded good. And so Lincoln set out to find this natblida, following the whispers to the coast. Not sure where to go from there, he settled down for the night among the stone statues, lighting a fire, making use of the branches that had fallen from the surrounding trees._

_As he was falling asleep, he heard footsteps, and came to full alertness as they surrounded him._

_“Chon yu bilaik?” One of the men demanded. “Hakom yu don flag raun?” (Who are you? Why do you signal?)_

_“Ai laik Linkon. Kom Trikru. Ai lufa stelt natblida au.” (I look for the hidden Nightblood.)_

_“Hakom?” (Why?)_

_“Ai gaf gouthru klir. Ai gaf chilnes in.” (I seek safe passage. I seek peace.)_

_“Shuda daun. Ething daun. En Floukru, yu stoda nodotaim.” (Weapons down. Everything down. In Floukru, you start again.)_

_Lincoln nodded, stripping down his weapons and dropping them in a pile along with the pack he carried. He dropped his overcoat on the pile as well, at which point the man motioned for him to stop._

_“Daun ste pleni. Twis.” (That’s enough. Turn.)_

_Lincoln turned in a slow circle, arms out, so that they could see he wasn’t hiding anything._

_“Kei.” The man nodded, handing out a vial. “Drein daun.” Then with a smirk he added “Set daun ona graun.” (Okay. Drink. And sit down on the ground.)_

_Lincoln took the vial with a bit of trepidation, but did what the man asked. He assumed there had to be measures of protection in place to protect the road that would take him to the hidden Natblida. This was one of them._

_At least he hoped it was, as he slowly lost consciousness, hoping that he’d wake up again._

* * *

“That’s intense.” Octavia said. “I mean, I get it. She wanted a real show of good faith. Would there have been enough for all of us? If all of us from the dropship had gotten there?”

“What would have been likely then was that she would have asked you, Clarke and Bellamy to go talk with her. You would have had to take the serum. Then after you were on the rig, she’d send the boat back for the others, but not let anyone board the rig until terms were reached. If terms were reached.”

“You don’t know if we could’ve?”

“You would have made an effort in good faith. Clarke would be more cautious. Bellamy… well, given who he was then, if Luna at any point looked askance at you or Clarke, he would have tried to interfere and she’d put him on his ass. Luna doesn’t mess around. If someone brings violence to her home, she is not a pacifist. She puts them down and they are expelled immediately.”

“You saw that happen?”

“Rarely. Most know not to mess with a Nightblood novitiate. She doesn’t like drawing on the violence in her blood.”

* * *

_Lincoln came to in a large metal room, the scent of the sea on the breeze. He pushed himself to his feet to survey the space, noticing some holes rusted in the metal, but none large enough to crawl through, and each only gave him a snippet of a look at nothing but sea._

_He moved over to what looked like the door, and hammered on it. “Hey!”_

_The door opened, and the bright light of the sunny day flooded in, almost blinding him as it reflected off of more and more metal._

_Once Lincoln was able to see clearly, he saw that a large group had assembled, but most kept back, only one approached towards him. Her curly hair blew around her face in the wind, her blue and green outfit matching the colours of the sea surrounding them, rigged also with the kind of netting one would use to catch fish. But despite her non-threatening wardrobe, there was a fire in her eyes as she approached him, and he knew she wasn’t to be messed with._

_“Lincoln of Trikru. What do you seek?” She asked in English._

_“I come in search of peace.”_

_“You believe you can find that here?”_

_“I hope I can. I’ve fought against the violence of the world for so long that I don’t know if there’s anything I can do to save it.”_

_“There isn’t. That’s why we live apart from the world.”_

_“Are you - her?”_

_“Who is the her you seek?”_

_“The Natblida who fled from her conclave. Who refused to fight for the position of Heda.”_

_“Why is such blood important to you? Is it not enough that we all disavow violence? Do you need confirmation that even someone raised with violence in their blood can renounce it before you can?”_

_“No. That’s not what I meant. I admire such strength, that’s all. The strength to resist that which your blood is telling you, the strength to resist that which society tries to make you. The strength to choose one’s own destiny.”_

_The woman stepped closer, her eyes traveling up and down Lincoln’s body as she did. “You consider that strength?”_

_“I do.”_

_“Well then, welcome to Floukru, Lincoln. I’m Luna.”_

* * *

“She liked you from the start.”

“She did. It got my foot in the door. Life in Floukru was very different than in Trikru. But I found my place in it.”

“Different from here?”

“Yes.”

“Did it feel more like home than here?”

“Home is a complicated thing, Octavia.”

“How so?” Octavia shifted over him to grab a blanket to pull over them as the air started to become cooler.

“Home isn’t a place. Home is the people who make a place feel like where you’re meant to be.”

“Mmm.” Octavia hummed. “I can understand that.” She looked up into his eyes and moved to give him a soft kiss. “You’re my home, Lincoln. You’re the only one who has ever seen me for _me,_ and not as a secret or as an extension of my brother.”

“Indra sees you differently as well. You impressed her. That’s not easy to do.”

“Do you think she’d take us back? When the kill order is lifted?”

“She might. But we’re doing a lot of good here. Skaikru is still wary of my people, but seeing us, together, that helps builds more trust, each and every day. You made peace between our people possible, even when others tried to damage that, over and over again. Peace still survives because of what we’re showing them. Do you know how rare that is in history?”

“So rare you can’t even think of a story to compare it to?”

“That’s right.” Lincoln raised himself up to give Octavia another kiss, and then settled back into the bed, propping himself up with one arm behind his head. “There have been stories where wars have ended because people from either side have declared their love for each other, but that’s where the story stops. It never shows what happens afterward, there are no stories of the hard part of _keeping_ that peace. And I know a lot of the old stories. Many of them I learned while living with Floukru.”

* * *

_Lincoln settled into Floukru’s routine of fishing, storytelling and playing games. Some groups went to the coast to trade with other clans, that wasn’t something he could do, not while he was still hiding from them. The storytelling fascinated him the most - while Trikru had its own traditions of storytelling, to be sure, Floukru’s were even more extensive._

_One day, Lincoln found Luna alone to ask her how Floukru’s storytelling tradition had grown so expansive, knowing that while she’d grown up in the cosmopolitan city of Polis, that as a Nightblood novitiate, her education would have been focused on combat, military strategy, statecraft and diplomacy, not stories._

_“We don’t only trade for food on the coast.” Luna told him. “We trade for books too. Most clans part with them easily, the stories being of no worth to them.”_

_Lincoln knew that to be true. What rare books had come into his hands he’d carefully hidden away, knowing that most would sooner tear them up and use them for kindling than read them. He didn’t have them, now, they were left behind in his hideout deep in Trikru lands._

_“How many books do you have?” Lincoln asked her._

_She cocked her head in curiosity. “You know how to read?”_

_“I do. My mother taught me when I was a child while my father was out fighting wars. He didn’t approve.”_

_“Which stories are your favourite?”_

_“The story of the garden of the Hesperides seems like a happy one.”_

_“Until Hercules came and disturbed their garden of peace.” Luna said, her voice both playful and with a hint of a warning in it. “Are you Hercules?”_

_Lincoln chuckled. “I’m not trying to complete any labours to make up for past crimes. I’m just trying to build a world with good people.”_

_“People like you here.”_

_“You do have good people here, Luna. I hope this is a world I can live in.”_

_“I like you here too, if that helps you stay.” Luna stepped closer to him, into his personal space, and ran a finger over his chest. “Do you want to see our library?”_

_Lincoln smiled, catching Luna’s hand in his and entwining their fingers. “I want to see your library. And all of the other wonders that you can show me of your world.”_

* * *

“If there were books, maybe living on Luna’s rig wouldn’t be so bad.” Octavia said. “We didn’t have many paper books on the Ark. A few, sure. But not a lot. Mostly Bellamy read me the stories that he read on the reading tablets he could sign out from the library sometimes. If Luna likes reading and stories, that’s something we’d have in common.”

“I don’t know if Luna still keeps as large of a library as she did when I was there.” Lincoln sighed. “I know she got rid of some books while I was there, it’s possible that she got rid of more after I left.”

“Why? Why would she do that, after what you just told me?”

“Stories give people ideas. Stories keep people believing in ideas that she’d rather they didn’t.”

* * *

_Weeks and then months went by. Lincoln was formally welcomed into Floukru. How could he not be, since he had after all begun to share Luna’s bedchamber not long after their trip to Floukru’s library, which occupied an entire wing of C Level of the rig._

_Lincoln had taken his turn at telling stories to the clan many times now, and while he spoke softly and without the loud fervour of some of the storytellers, the entire space would go quiet as people held on to his every word, drinking in all of the worlds he shared with them._

_But one evening, after his turn at the podium, telling a story of how an impending war between two kingdoms had been averted when the son of one of the leaders and the daughter of the other had announced they’d been secretly in love for years and wished to end the war by uniting their kingdoms, Lincoln headed off to his and Luna’s room and found her blocking his entrance, arms crossed._

_“What was that?” She demanded to know. “A story about war?”_

_“A story about how a war was ended without a single cut of a blade or shot of an arrow. A story about how peace and love won out over hate.”_

_“I thought you’d given up on the world out there. That your foolish notion of bringing peace to people was over. That’s what you agreed to when you came here. That’s what you agreed to when we promised ourselves to each other.”_

_“I still want to believe the best of people. Is that wrong?”_

_“It’s not wrong. But it’s foolish. We know people, Lincoln. We’ve lived among the other clans. We know life in Polis. Where is there that’s been as peaceful as here?”_

_“There hasn’t been a place.”_

_“Exactly.”_

_“But that doesn’t mean there **can’t** be a place. A place where we can bring peace to more people.”_

_“You can’t bring peace to people. You can only bring people to peace.”_

_“Luna, your numbers here are growing. Do you really think this rig will be enough to hold everyone who seeks peace?”_

_“If people want to find their own peace, then let them lay down their arms and find it. I don’t have to be the judge of that.” Luna said, ending with a sigh. “I don’t want to fight anymore, Lincoln. Can’t we just sleep?”_

* * *

“That was the beginning of our disagreements.” Lincoln said quietly. “I wasn’t entirely ready to give up on the world like she was. I wanted to have hope that we could all find peace, all of the clans. And as the months went on, fewer people came to us, and they were mostly fugitives from clan justice, not people fleeing wars. They brought us stories about Lexa and how her Coalition was getting stronger, and how the clans were truly beginning to work together rather than against each other.”

“Did Luna see what Lexa was doing as a threat?”

“No. She didn’t think it would work. She believed it was bound to fall apart one day. Not to mention that even if the clans weren’t fighting among themselves, Lexa still held up the traditional laws of _solo gonplei,_ death by a thousand cuts and so on.”

“But you thought it was possible that even with that, there was a chance at peace in the Coalition?”

“I did. I wasn’t going to go right up to Lexa and volunteer to be in her guard or anything, but I did believe that the tides were beginning to turn. Some of those who had come had mentioned that Anya was leading Trikru, and Anya had trained Lexa in a lot of what she knew, so while I had a potential conflict waiting for me with Indra as the leader of TonDC, I could have a chance at working with other Trikru villages.”

“Did you? After you left?”

“Eventually.” Lincoln smiled. “Turns out it became more complicated than I’d thought, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

* * *

_“Are you sure?” Luna asked, a note of sadness in her voice, but also a symphony of relief. Relief that it hadn’t needed to be her decision._

_“I am.” Lincoln said, cupping Luna’s face and resting his forehead against hers for a moment before pulling away to kiss her cheek. “I appreciate what you’re doing here, and I always will. The world needs an oasis away from its horrors and dangers, and I wouldn’t hesitate to send those who want to escape from it here to you. But this is not my place.”_

_“You really believe the world can change?”_

_“I know it won’t if I and others like me aren’t there in the world to show them a better way.”_

_“I fear your optimism may be the death of you, Lincoln.” Luna said, the sadness rising to the surface as she stroked her thumb over his cheek. “But I hope you will find someone to leave that legacy to, even if it won’t be me.”_

_“Take care of yourself, Luna.”_

_“You too, Lincoln. Yu gonplei nou ste odon. But I hope you will find peace nonetheless.” (Your fight is not over.)_

_Lincoln nodded to her one final time, and she stepped back, his last glimpse of her as she closed the doors to the elevator that would take him down to the boat._

_The Floukru boatsmen dropped him on the shore without a word, they hadn’t bothered with the serum, they knew he was still a friend even if he couldn’t live with them._

_Lincoln walked into the forest without looking back._

_It would be a day or two before he’d make it back to his hideout, probably the best place to go until he formulated a plan that didn’t involve TonDC. But before he could begin to contemplate his next move, he heard a loud roar in the sky, and quickly scaled a tree on the nearest hill to see what on Earth was making that noise._

_He made it to a height where he could see what the commotion was - just in time to see a metal ship floating towards the ground, its roar dying down, the parachute above it slowing its descent as it crashed down into the forest, crushing all of the trees in its path._

_It was bigger than the craft he’d seen when he was a child, the one that had held one man from the sky. This one probably had many people aboard._

_He’d told Luna he wanted to believe in peace in the world. Lexa had started that work with the Coalition, but these new people - who were they? Who could they be? Was there a chance of peace with them?_

_Lincoln resolved to find out._

* * *

“So I guess you could say that Luna sent me to you.” Lincoln said, stroking a thumb over Octavia’s cheek before leaning in to kiss her. “If I hadn’t left Luna’s rig that day, I may have never met you.”

“You wouldn’t have, because without you none of us would have survived. You saved my life. You saved all of our lives.” Octavia said, hugging him close to her. “We only survived at the dropship because of the information you gave us. Thank you.”

“Best decision I ever made. We’ve been able to make such a difference together, one Luna never would have thought possible. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it, don’t you think? Everything we’ve been able to do?”

“It is.” Octavia said, even as she closed her eyes, concentrating on the feel of Lincoln’s skin beneath her fingers instead of the metal of the Ark around them.

 _Home is a person,_ she reminded herself. As long as she had him, as long as they had their mission, they’d be okay, regardless of what walls surrounded them.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from “Elastic Heart” and “Where I Belong” by Sia.
> 
> Don't forget, if you'd like to request a promptfill, go [follow the instructions here](https://t100fic-for-blm.tumblr.com/about) to do so!


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